Today we woke up in Gunsang  then we trekked through to lunch in Yak Karaka and finally our tea house in Letdar for the night at 4230 meters (13, 959 feet).  After lunch we started passing herds of that very large and furry beast of the Himalayas… those yaks and nyaks (female yak). Perhaps the Yeti rumors began from a combination of a local with unusually large feet and a yak hide.   The word yeti comes from Tibetian yeh-the or “man of the snowy/ rocky places”. Historically of interest, Edmund Hillary of Mt Everest  fameled  an expedition in 1960 to track a yeti. His success on Everest did not translate into yeti-finding success.

Yaks are HUGE.  Our attempts at being the” yak whisperers” to the yearlings were met with resounding defeat. Respecting the accurate use of language, the locally advertised yak cheese is in fact nyak cheese.  Respecting the fact that nyak are the females, yak cheese is thus theoretically impossible. Let’s stay accurate folks!

As we are getting in early on these shorter trek days, the kids have been regularly roped into homework time on the trail. The kids are officially withdrawn from school but most teachers provided outlines for continued learning in math and certain other subjects. Social studies is happening on an entirely new level here. The kids journal each night on their days sights, sounds and experiences.  The kids are regularly involved on calculating exchange rates between rupee and dollars. Most interesting is the porters and guides involving themselves in homework time.  Jared and Tylin have a list of Nepalease words they have collected. One of our porters, whose English is quite good, explained how when he was 16 years old (only 8 years ago) how he and his schoolmates were forced to abandon their schooling because of the Maoist uprising that was blanketing Nepal. He perservered and finished his schooling in later years. The porters told us that having finished schooling that an education does not lead to better jobs here in Nepal.   Many go to India to be able to advance.   As our friendships with our porters and guides have grown, the discussions and insights have led to many eye-opening conversations.  We have discussed the need for clean water and child mortality,explored  solar cooking and pointing out the landslide areas that have occurred from deforestation that has happened.  So to all my children’s great teachers in Colorado, the kids ARE working!

Looking Yak & Nak